# 162. F. V. Lengnik. Letter to the Editorial Board of Iskra. January 21, 1904
# Source: Lenin Collection X, p. 158
# Date: 1904-01-21

162.
Copy **.
To the Editorial Board of the C. C.
Geneva, January 21, 1904
Dear Comrades!

The C. C. once again points out to you the unreasonableness and impropriety of that quarreling, which you call letters from the C. C. to the C. C.

The C. C. has never threatened the C. C. with anything and could not have threatened, because the closure of the printing shop is a most lamentable and harmful measure for the C. C. as well. I repeat that the money is needed precisely for the publication of Iskra, i.e., above all for the editorial board and for the entire Party. Now news of arrests in Russia (we know nothing beyond rumors and unclear telegrams)¹ makes it especially probable that we will also not receive money from there (although we requested it very long ago, much earlier than we turned to you). Whoever holds dear the interests of the Party and positive work must endeavor to obtain the means without regard to any considerations of internal Party struggle.

Regarding literature, the C. C. has long since ordered that 50 copies be provided to the editorial board for its needs. We were not informed why more is necessary, and at present we find ourselves unable to increase this

F. V. LENGNIK — TO THE EDITORIAL BOARD OF ISKRA *.

* Printed from the draft of F. V. Lengnik's letter, left as a copy for the archive and in its final form identical with another copy recorded in one of the notebooks. Ed.
** The word "Copy" is inscribed in the manuscript in F. V. Lengnik's hand in the upper left corner of the first page of the letter. Ed.
Lenin Collection X.

quantity, in view [of the condition of our local warehouse] of the fact that in our local warehouse we do not have a particularly large quantity of copies.

We know nothing of any changes in the composition of the C. C. We thank you for the communication of the pleasant news about one member of the C. C.²

We must also warn that the disclosure of the names of C. C. members to anyone whatsoever is absolutely inadmissible. Yesterday Druyan³ directly declared to Lenin that Marty and Blumenfeld had told him, Druyan, that Lenin is a member of the C. C. Given such a violation of elementary rules of conspiracy and the entire statute of the C. C., in the interests of the cause I shall be forced to refrain from communicating information to the C. C.

The brochure "Liberals and Socialists" we agree to publish in 3,000 copies. This was already communicated to Comrade Ilya long ago.

[The meeting with Comrade Blumenfeld, who wanted to see me for the purchase of literature (literature is sold by us through an expeditor), I thought should not have had an official character.

With comradely greetings.
On behalf of the C. C.]
Foreign Representative of the C. C. Vasiliev.

¹ Concerning the "arrests" (arrests) in Russia, N. K. Krupskaya reported in her letter to L. M. Knipovich of January 13 (above, document 158, p. 150). Furthermore, on January 14—15 there was an arrest in Kiev, when D. I. and M. I. Ulyanov and Z. P. Kržižanovskaya, who worked in the Kiev bureau of the C. C., and S. Z. Dizhur, a lawyer, who at that time was the keeper of C. C. funds, were arrested.

² The "pleasant news about one member of the C. C." is the communication by Marty in his letter of January 8 (above, document 155, p. 134) of a refutation of previously received information about an alleged arrest of R. S. Zemlychka.

³ The person mentioned here remained unidentified.